1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that executes a job defined in a job ticket, and a method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has conventionally been an information processing apparatus (for example, multifunctional peripheral) having a function of reading a document to generate image data, and a function of transmitting the generated image data to an external apparatus. The information processing apparatus prompts a user to designate a reading parameter used to read a document image, and designate a transmission protocol, destination, and the like used to transmit generated image data. In accordance with contents designated by the user, the information processing apparatus reads a document image to generate image data, and transmits the generated image data to an external apparatus.
When executing a series of processes using a combination of functions, the user needs to designate many contents, resulting in cumbersome input operation. To solve this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-287860 (patent reference 1) discloses a technique of, when executing a plurality of services in cooperation with each other, creating in advance an instruction statement (that is, job ticket) which defines the contents of processes to be executed, and processing a document in accordance with a definition described in the job ticket. In this technique, the user suffices to only designate execution of a predetermined job ticket. Then, processes having contents described in the job ticket are sequentially executed, reducing the burden of the input operation on the user. According to a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-040899 (patent reference 2), an overwrite ticket which defines inhibited print attributes, and a standard ticket which defines default attributes are stored in a printing control apparatus. In printing, if a job ticket from a user has an inhibited attribute, the inhibited attribute is forcibly deleted or corrected. If the job ticket does not have a necessary attribute, the attribute is forcibly complemented by a default value. In this way, the job ticket is overwritten to comply with a predetermined rule, and then transmitted to an information processing apparatus. If a job ticket which is set to inhibit overwriting contains an inhibited attribute, the job itself is not accepted. According to this technique, the information processing apparatus sets proper inhibited attributes so as to inhibit printing with inhibited attributes. Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-317058 (patent reference 3) discloses a technique of extracting predetermined restriction information from output specification information (that is, job ticket) of a job, and preventing a user from editing setting items corresponding to the restriction information via the user interface of a printing control apparatus.
According to the conventional techniques, if a necessary attribute is not described when handling a plurality of types of job tickets, it is forcibly complemented by a default value. In some cases, attributes held by an original job ticket cannot be understood. Even if a job ticket has an inhibited attribute, it may comply with a predetermined rule. However, the job is often canceled as long as it has an inhibited attribute. In patent reference 3, it is inhibited to edit a setting item corresponding to restriction information via the user interface of a printing control apparatus. This can prevent a third party from making, via the user interface of the printing control apparatus, an alteration against the intension of a user who has issued the job. However, even the user who has issued the job cannot edit the job, and has to create a job again.